Description: A Thyferran Hellion is a horrific thing to behold - it has the basic form of a humanoid, but its flesh is scorched ash-grey from the heat of the orbital bombardment of Thyferra. features melted into a congealed cocktail of ash. Cracks often shine through its body, especially around the eyes - the cracks are signs of an underlying heat within the creature, often forming irregular marks around its body as though it was perpetually burning underneath its skin, like a cracks shining through the hardened lava of a volcano, revealing the molten magma beneath.

PHYSICAL INFORMATION

Breathes: N/A

Average height of adults: 1.8m

Average length of adults: N/A

Skin color: Ashen grey, charred black, or scorched white, often with red, orange, or yellow 'cracks' in the 'skin'

Hair color: Hairless

Distinctions: There are no distinctions between genders.

Races: N/A

Strengths:

​Burst of Flame: The Thyferran Hellion contains within its very essence the power of the turbolasers that turned the once vibrant bacta-producing planet into a hellish, ash-filled landscape. It can release this power either through great gouts of flame from its palms, or through direct contact, melting through armor and nigh-instantaneously incinerating flesh. The heat at range from its attack is less potent than a touch, but still hot enough to ignite flesh and scorch armor. Direct contact can even melt through thick durasteel.

Astral Form: The Thyferran Hellion is ultimately a body animated by an insane spiritual life force - even if struck down, the mad soul can form another body out of ash and continue to pursue its target.

Immunity: Being an animated construct crafted out of ash and ruin, the Thyferran Hellion cannot be destroyed by fire, plasma, or energy, as it will only absorb their heat and power to strengthen its own.

Weaknesses:

​Nullification: Thyferran Hellions cannot form in an area where ysalamiri are gathered as they will disrupt the connection of the spirit to the body it animates, causing it to crumble and slowly disintegrate over a period of several seconds exposure to the Force bubble. As well, given the creature's fire attacks are empowered by the Force, they dissipate when used against ysalamiri.

Ashen Form: Thyferran Hellions are ultimately comprised of ash, and thus can be relatively easily destroyed, at least for a bit, with something as simple as a Force Push. It will take them several minutes to reform, during which they cannot attack. As well, they are vulnerable to cold weapons, which can for a time immobilize them and prevent them from attacking.

It's a Trap: The spirit animating the Thyferran Hellion can be trapped or otherwise sealed within an object through one of a number of methods of soul-binding, thus preventing it from reforming a body out of the terrain.

Plane Bound: Thyferran Hellions can only be formed from Thyferran ash. If a bound spirit animating a Hellion is taken off-world, it cannot animate a body from other materials than Thyferran ash, thus effectively restricting them to Thyferra.

CULTURE

Diet: None

Communication: A series of horrifying growls, moans, and unnatural screams.

Technology level: The Thyferran Hellion has no concept of technology.

Religion/Beliefs: N/A

General behavior: Thyferran Hellions roam around the ash-filled landscape of Thyferra, often alone, but sometimes in groups of two or three, attacking anything they come across. A group larger than three is exceedingly rare. They will initially shamble slowly before speeding up in an almost Rakghoul-like sprint towards their target, bursts of flame coming from their hands. They will attempt to either burn the target from a range of fifteen to twenty meters with the flames from their hands, or will grab their target, melting through their armor and incinerating their flesh.

Thyferra was once so lush, so beautiful of a world - yet now such beauty is lost. The landscape that had once contained a fruitful and thriving civilization had been reduced to hills and valleys filled with ash. The ash of plants. The ash of animals. The ash of sentient beings. All had been reduced to charred particulate, the few survivors of the orbital bombardment forced to venture out into a hostile wasteland where seemingly nothing could survive.

Then the attacks began. Workers started to describe strange creatures - human-like, but grey, with molten blood seeping from them. They would phase into and out of the ash, grabbing hapless workers and incinerating them into dust. It was so bad that the workers went on strike for a period of time. My first encounter with one of these creatures was, admittedly, quite terrifying. The feral monstrosity rushed towards me and was not stopped by anything, whether slugthrower, blaster, or lightsaber. Only a grenade dispelled its form - a few minutes later it reformed itself from another pile of ash and rushed towards me again.

The Force was a valuable tool in engaging the creature. With but a simple push I could scatter its body to the wind. To put the creature down, though, required the work of Gorger​ - it was not even finished, yet the soul-sapping sword was the only means of ensuring the creature, the hellish, hellish creature, did not get back up.

I was not here when the Sith originally bombarded Thyferra, but I can make a number of educated hypotheses based upon past instances of similar creatures. Based on their ability to form a body, their connection to the world, and their pyrokinetic abilities, I believe them to be animated by the Force-Sensitives of this world, their spirits driven into a state where they could not unite with the Force, a change that they as untrained users of the Force could not comprehend - thus driving them mad. Whatever semblance of intelligence they do have - and given the complexity of some of their ambushes on my workers, they do have some intelligence - is likely forged out of a desire to protect their homeworld from any invaders, though they seem to be unable to view anyone but themselves as invaders. I cannot explain their humanoid form given the likelihood that many of the spirits were once Vratix - perhaps they are attempting to mimic the current population of human colonists on this world.

Given average percentages of the Force-sensitivity of a world's population, it is likely that there may be hundreds of these insane spirits floating around the world. I cannot explain how they generate the flames and the incinerating heat they do - perhaps their spirits were somehow infused with fiery power when the turbolasers rained down upon this world - but their ability to appear wherever there is a large quantity of ash concerns me greatly. We can't start making Thyferran cinderblocks with the world's ash as clinker until we find a means of dealing with them. I recommend bringing a large number of Sith to this world and binding these spirits to something so they cannot continue to form bodies.

ADDENDUM:

Sonic pulse generators and repulsor fields have proven effective in persistently disrupting the ash around the factory enough that any wandering Hellions are kept at bay. Apparently anything that disrupts the spirits' ability to hold their body together can keep them from actively reforming. We've installed shufflers inside the factory to keep the ash jostling, as well as repulsor fields and sonic pulse generators to disrupt the ash outside and keep the creatures from coming nearby. The settlements aren't as fortunate, but there's nothing I can do for them. This is a haunted world now, and as much as I wish there was something that could be done - it's nothing that can be handled. Not by me.

Edited by Jyoti Nooran, 02 March 2018 - 06:18 PM.Placed image within spoiler at the request of the Codex Admin. Image was much too large.

The desutrction of Thyferra was a significant event. Can you link any threads relevant to the development of these creatures? Just for posterity.

Burst of Flame: The Thyferran Hellion contains within its very essence the power of the turbolasers that turned the once vibrant bacta-producing planet into a hellish, ash-filled landscape. It can release this power either through great gouts of flame from its palms, or through direct contact, melting through armor and nigh-instantaneously incinerating flesh.

So does its ranged attack have the same damage output as an direct attack through physical contact? At max power, how much damage can a Hellion do against personnel, vehicles, and structures?

Immunity: Being an animated construct crafted out of ash and ruin, the Thyferran Hellion cannot be destroyed by slugthrowers, swords, or energy weapons. Only weapons with an explosive effect will harm it.

This particular strength seems to conflict with the following weakness:

Ashen Form: Thyferran Hellions are ultimately comprised of ash, and thus can be relatively easily destroyed, at least for a bit, with something as simple as a Force Push.

On the topic of reforming, on average, how long does it take a Hellion to reform from destruction of its physical form? Passages in the description section indicate that the Hellions can shift into an incoporeal mode and phase at will, is that correct?

Nullification: Thyferran Hellions cannot form in an area where ysalamiri are gathered as they will disrupt the connection of the spirit to the body it animates, causing it to crumble and slowly disintegrate over a period of several seconds exposure to the Force bubble.

Can the Hellions be permanently eradicated (or banished to the Netherworld) if trapped within a force nullification bubble created by a Ysalamir or some other means? The constructs reads as if they are of dark alignment, so would they be affected by Force Light and other related abilities?

It's a Trap: The spirit animating the Thyferran Hellion can be trapped or otherwise sealed within an object through Sith sorcery, thus preventing it from reforming a body out of the terrain.

There are other methods for trapping incorporeal entities like soul snares or conventional force fields, so I don't want sealing methods limited to Sith sorcery alone. I see another weakness in this statement, that the Hellions cannot form where there is no ash, like inside ash-free structures.

I recommend bringing a large number of Sith to this world and binding these spirits to something so they cannot continue to form bodies.

So, could these spirits that power the Hellions be binded to something more durable, like some power armor or a body, and retain their pyrokinetic abilities? Are they bound to operate solely on Thyferra?

Posted 16 February 2018 - 04:41 AM

I've given the the image a source as best I can given it's a screencap from the episode of a television show.

I was not here when the Thyferra invasion occurred, and this only spawned in retrospect as an idea given the planet's otherwise uselessness, but the invasion thread has been linked.

Effects of direct contact and ranged attack have been edited.

The strength and weakness do not conflict, though I have edited to clarify - only weapons and Force attacks with a concussive effect, a physical blast wave against the entirety of the creature's body will cause its ash to scatter.

The description gives an approximate period of time("a mere thirty seconds later it reformed itself from another pile of ash and rushed towards me again...") for reformation. The creatures cannot phase at will - the 'phasing' is literally the act of the spirit releasing its presence from the ash in its body and adding said ash to whatever pile they walk into. As the spirit leaves the body, it looks like the ash of the creature is phasing into the material, though it is in fact not. If the Thyferran Hellion actually was capable of phasing, it would be effectively immune to attack and would be denied instantly.

Ysalamiri Force bubbles merely drive the spirit away and would not destroy it. They would not be affected by Force Light given they are the souls of individuals who never aligned themselves to the side of Light or Dark due to their untrained nature - their destructive nature is the result of their insanity and not some innate darkness.

Any sort of soul-binding would eliminate the creature as an effective threat - Sith sorcery is given as an example, though any method that traps the soul would work. Their physical bodies would be stopped by force fields, but I would not see the insane spirits themselves as being stopped. I have also added that the creature can only form from Thyferran ash, clarifying that they cannot form on other worlds.

The spirit could in theory be bound to something more durable, like a corpse or a suit of armor, but it would not retain its pyrokinetic capabilities - those it has only in its form as a Thyferran Hellion.

Posted 20 February 2018 - 11:18 AM

I've given the the image a source as best I can given it's a screencap from the episode of a television show.

That's okay, you could write something to the effect of "Time Zombies from Doctor Who (Television Series)".

The strength and weakness do not conflict, though I have edited to clarify - only weapons and Force attacks with a concussive effect, a physical blast wave against the entirety of the creature's body will cause its ash to scatter.

The description gives an approximate period of time("a mere thirty seconds later it reformed itself from another pile of ash and rushed towards me again...") for reformation.

Alright, I get what you're trying to say here, but I'm not comfortable with the creature more of less having blanket immunity to several common weapon types while also being able to regenerate so quickly from a full body shot, all on top of its high potential damage output.

My suggestion. You could rework this strength to say that the construct could quickly regenerate from partial destruction of its body, somewhere in the neighborhood of several seconds to a minute. During the process of partial or full regeneration, it would be unable to attack.

As for a full regeneration from a complete wipe, I'd like to see the time increased from 30 seconds to something like several minutes or more.

They would not be affected by Force Light given they are the souls of individuals who never aligned themselves to the side of Light or Dark due to their untrained nature - their destructive nature is the result of their insanity and not some innate darkness.

While these constructs were not necessarily practicing Dark Siders before the time of their death, or consented to their corruption, at the end of the day, they are still hostile dark entities that are the product of an extremely violent extinction event.

As it stands now, without more tweaks to the current list of strengths and weaknesses, or more solid weaknesses added, I don't see the Hellion being quite balanced yet (though I do appreciate the edits made thus far). For example, you list Force nullification as a weakness, but conveniently, the Hellion is still able to comfortably lob its attacks well outside the typical radius of a Ysalamir-produced nullification bubble.

Posted 25 February 2018 - 08:58 PM

Alright, this looks good. Just a couple more things then I can stamp this.

Immunity: Being an animated construct crafted out of ash and ruin, the Thyferran Hellion cannot be destroyed by slugthrowers, swords, or energy weapons. Only weapons with a concussive effect will harm it.

Ashen Form: Thyferran Hellions are ultimately comprised of ash, and thus can be relatively easily destroyed, at least for a bit, with something as simple as a Force Push.

As I said before, the Hellion's physical form can't have a full blanket immunity against the weapons listed. Then it isn't all that fragile as you've listed as one of your weaknesses. Please tone it down.

Here's an idea. In keeping with the theme of the construct, you could rework this strength to say that the Hellion is highly resistant to energy attacks, plasma, and fire, the IC rationale being that it can absorb energy and heat.

For another weakness, you could say that it's especially weak to cyro/cold weapon types, or something like that. Perhaps weaker in cold regions as well.

Damaged Hellions can, over a very short period of time, rebuild themselves out of the ash on the planet. They cannot however attack while doing so.

You can throw this under the weakness section and tie it to the astral form strength as a direct counter.